1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a foot balancing device and, more particularly, to a foot balancing device which enables uniform distribution of a user's body weight over the feet while the user is standing or walking.
2. Description of Related Art
With the development and progress of economy, people nowadays have far fewer opportunities for physical labor than before, and a lack of physical activities has increased the chances of various diseases of affluence significantly.
On the other hand, chronic pain resulting from improper posture is common to many, if not more common than the diseases of affluence. The main causes of chronic pain are improper body movements and postures which drive the bones and muscles out of balance. From the viewpoint of biological evolution, humans evolved from quadrupedalism to bipedalism. In order to keep balance while standing or walking on two feet in an erect position, the bones and muscles must coordinate with one another; hence, substitution and compensation between the bones and muscles take place to prevent one from tumbling in a standing state or allow one to continue walking in an upright position.
The aforesaid substitution and compensation involve interactions between different bones and muscles, and it is these interactions that make possible the various types of improper body movements and postures when one is standing or walking. Such improper movements and postures, in turn, unbalance the bones and muscles and eventually give rise to chronic pain and all kinds of soreness.
As the chronic pain and soreness mentioned above stem from substitution and compensation within the human body as a whole, no easy medical solution is available, despite the highly developed modern medicine. Neither can the human body itself effectively avoid improper movements or postures to prevent chronic pain and soreness.
To alleviate the discomfort caused by chronic pain, it is most desirable that the body weight of a person in a standing position is evenly distributed between the heel and the front part of the sole of each foot, and that consequently the center of pressure of each sole lies at the center of the sole. Only when one's body weight is evenly supported by the feet can the bone and muscle systems maintain neutral balance while standing or walking. Under normal circumstances, however, the center of pressure of a sole in a standing position tends to be located either backward or forward of the center of the sole as a result of shoe design. If the center of pressure is shifted backward, the heel bears a greater part of the body weight and therefore may be painful and cause to wear away the heel of the shoe. If the center of pressure is shifted forward, it is the front part of the sole that bears a greater part of the body weight, and a forward impetus is generated when walking.
Conventional solutions to the foregoing problems include adding a post in the shoe structure; making a hole in the heel of a shoe and filling the hole with a soft, resilient material; and putting a well-shaped heel cup in a shoe. These solutions nevertheless tend to apply more force to the heel or sole of a foot and therefore fail to provide effective improvement. A further study reveals that, while the post, the soft material, and the heel cup help adjust improper body movement or posture arising from an uneven distribution of body weight between the heel and the front part of the sole of each foot, they are ineffective in reducing the pressure on the heel or the front part of the sole.